Fuzzy-ID - Device identification with silicon fingerprint

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All Silicon IP

Overview

Tiny variations in a semiconductor manufacturing process make each transistor and each piece of silicon unique. These variations are random and uncontrollable making it impossible to construct an exact clone. Hence, we refer to this as a Physical Unclonable Function or PUF or Silicon fingerprint . The variations are too small to influence chip behavior. However, with the right circuitry the PUF can be measured.
Standard memory structures like SRAM can measure this silicon fingerprint. The startup behavior of SRAM forms a unique pattern. This pattern is only available after SRAM power-up and is unique for each chip yet very persistent across a wide range of operating conditions. As some of the bits in the pattern are unstable, the pattern displays some variation i.e., it is fuzzy. An SRAM startup pattern is therefore a Fuzzy Identifier or Fuzzy ID.

Features

Fuzzy-ID supports several innovative use cases:

Invisible tagFuzzy IDs or SRAM measurements recorded during manufacturing of devices can later be used for supply chain audits or counterfeit checks. The Fuzzy ID is like an invisible and tamper-resistant serial number embedded in a chip.

Identification without any non-volatile memory (NVM)Devices without any NVM cannot store any identifier or any key. Fuzzy ID can be used to identify such devices from their SRAM fingerprint.

Authentication without any non-volatile memoryFuzzy-ID can be combined with Intrinsic-ID Quiddikey secure key generation and storage to provide a full authentication solution without any non-volatile memory. In a first step, Fuzzy-ID is used to identify a chip. Once identified, the hub or host processor can send information to the chip that enables it to regenerate its inherent PUF key with Quiddikey.